Archive for February, 2007

The first information about an upcoming GPS System by TomTom called TomTom DUO are starting to appear online. First there was a report of an unknown TomTom unit appearing on FCC and later on a post by GPS Review it was mentioned that this brand new unit will be called TomTom Duo. Not a lot of information is available yet but it appears that it will be coming with a docking station equipped with an FM transmitter that will provide navigational directions, as well as music from external players such as the iPod through the car’s sound system, . Other features that have been mentioned include SD, hands free Bluetooth calling and voice SMS and a tweaked interface. More information and the official announcement are expected at the CeBIT.

Another review of the ViaMichelin X-930 has been posted this time by PC Magazine. The review has been added to my ViaMichelin X-930 Reviews where I have compiled a list of all the reviews available for this navigation system. By adding this review the overall average rating from all the reviews has slightly fallen to 62/100. PC Magazine gave the unit a “fair” and the reviewer’s main complaint was the difficult menu system. You can read the review here

Benefon today announced three new smartphones with interesting features. The names of the three devices are TWIG Talisman, TWIG Totem, and TWIG Monolith, Interesting names none the less.

TWIG Talisman

The TWIG Talisman is a Tri-Band GSM/GPRS/EDGE device that will be running Microsoft Windows Mobile 6 and it will support Microsoft Outlook Mobile for quick access to email, calendar, task and contact functions. Although we have no picture of it at the moment according to the press release it will have a traditional numeric key pad and a 2.6” touch-screen. It’s integrated SiRF Star III GPS chip and Benefon’s new Windows navigation and location search solution will provide users with turn by turn voice guided directions. Finally it features a 2 MP digital camera and Bluetooth® 1.2

TWIG Totem

Twig Totem is a 3,5G handset that according to the Press Release

is a lightweight and powerful mobile device that offers a full range
of PDA features such as Microsoft Office Mobile for reading and editing Word and
Excel documents, combined with Benefon’s powerful Windows navigation system for
real time turn by turn navigation and access to location relevant information.
The Twig Totem features touch screen and numeric key pad inputs, an integrated
SiRF Star III GPS chip, 3 mega pixel camera and Bluetooth® 2.0.

TWIG Monolith

Finally the TWIG Monolith is a WiFi phone with integrated GPS (SiRFStar III) that will feature both a numeric keypad and a touchscreen and will have a smartphone form factor. Same as the two previously mentioned units it will be using WM6, Benefon’s new turn by turn Windows navigation system and embedded location search technology. Other features include a 2MP digital camera and and Bluetooth 1.2

These new devices by Benefon are expected to start shipping in June 2007 with an unknown price tag.

Press Release

It appears that Mio is going to release a new portable Car Navigation System called Mio C220. I don’t have a lot (if any) information about it other that it will be selling in the $270 range. For those that wonder where did I get this information it’s simple, Amazon and CompSource.

Of course there is always the possibility that this is just a misspelling of the Mio C250 (time will tell)

GolfBuddy is another Golf GPS system that promises to improve you Golf game. GolfBuddy Designers obviously focused on portability since the units dimensions are 5.3cm X 8.2cm X 2.6cm and it weights just 85gr (without the batteries). It’s small size obviously limits the screen real estate, so the unit features a 128X64 pixel / Mono LCD which to be honest from the pictures seems more than enough. Like most GPS Golf aids it will calculate for you the distances to the front, back and center of the Green as well as yardage to custom points including hazards, bunkers and lay-up points. The unit features an 8 channel GPS receiver that according to the manufacturer provides an accuracy of 1~3 Yard 90% of the time. GolfBuddy can hold information for up to 60 golf courses that you can transfer to the device from your PC using a serial cable. The course data can be downloaded from the company’s site providing that you have bought one of the yearly subscriptions. The prices for the subscriptions range from $24.95/yr to $54.95/yr. The unit is currently available in the USA from GolfBuddy’s site with a price of $274.99. Along with the unit inside the box you will find a belt clip a data cable and the manual.

Product Page

It appears that Magellan is preparing a new line of GPS Systems for release next month. The line will be called Magellan Maestro and it will include three systems, the Magellan Maestro 4000, 4040 and 4050. I came across these new devices while I was browsing TigerGPS today and to be honest I was surprised since they haven’t been officially announced yet. All three of them will have a 4.3″ WQVGA full-color touch screen, will be using the SiRF Star III GPS chipset and will feature turn-by-turn voice guidance. Those are the base features found on all of the systems of the Magellan GPS Maestro line. In addition to those the Mastro 4040 will have a more detailed map (by NAVTEQ) compared to the base unit (the Maestro 4000) as well as text-to-speech voice directions, Bluetooth phone compatibility and live traffic capability (optional add-on). Finally the Maestro 4050 that will be the top of the line system, in addition to all the above features will be shipping with the traffic kit included and will also feature a voice recognition technology that will allow users to give simple voice commands to the unit.

These three new units are expected to start shipping sometime this April with suggested retail prices of $449.99, $599.99 and $799.99

UPDATE: Links no longer work
Maestro 4000, 4040, 4050

RoyalTek staR is a new GPS device that will be presented at the CeBIT this year. According to the announcement I found, it is described as the “ultimate entertainment GPS device”. Very few details are currently available. The announcement mentions that it has a 2.2″ LCD screen, a rugged IPX4 ready casing and some of it’s features include personal positional guidance, color mapping, waypoint logging, track recording, e-compass, calorie calculation, BMI, and distance/speed measuring, star watching and game playing. The two features that caught my eye are the calorie and BMI calculation. BMI for those that don’t know what it is stands for Body Mass Index which is calculated by dividing the weight (kgr) by the height (m) squared. Being a professional dietitian one thing that I can say for sure is that most people don’t find dieting entertaining . We will have to wait until the CeBIT to get more info about the specs and the features of the staR and whether it deserves the title it was given to it by RoyalTek.

Source

MainNav, the Taiwanese GPS manufacturer that recently released the MG-920 Bluetooth GPS receiver with an FM transmitter is releasing another interesting GPS product, a GPS watch with optional bluetooth. The watch looks kinda bulky and it’s size is 69 x 55 x 28mm (I couldn’t find how much it weights). Nonetheless, it’s an interesting concept, a GPS watch that can also be used as a bluetooth GPS receiver. Inside the watch resides the high sensitivity SiRF Star III LP chip that is responsible for tracking the wearer’s location. The system also features a digital heart-rate, speed and distance and a temperature sensor. Finally it is waterproof as expected for most systems that are mainly for outdoors use and is equipped with a Li-ion 400mAh battery. Although, I like the concept behind the MW-705 (and kudos to MainNav for not just producing cookie cutter products) my two reservations are it’s design and the battery life when using the optional Bluetooth (v2.0) module. Whether we will see it in Europe and the USA depends on whether western distributors decide to bring it to us.

Source

After the Mio A701, the Taiwanese company Mio is preparing another GPS-enabled Pocket PC Phone, the Mio A501. Designwise the A501 is quite different from the A701 and to be honest I prefer this new design. A501 according to the reports will be using the (surprise, surprise) SiRFstar III GPS chip. Other features and specifications include Edge GPRS (no 3G), 2.7″ QVGA screen, 64/128 RAM/ROM capacity, quad-band GSM, Bluetooth 2.0 and 2MP digital camera. Finally, it is (or will be) powered by a 201MHz TI OMAP 850 processor and it will be running Windows Mobile 5.

It is expected to hit the stores sometime this March with a unknown as of yet price tag.

[Via PocketPCThoughts]

Nokia unveiled the 6110 Navigator a a quadband mobile phone with sat-nav capabilities that according to Nokia it was designed for the mass market. Besides GPS the 6110 Navigator also features A-GPS (Assisted Global Positioning System). The Nokia 6110 Navigator has almost everything most people would ask for from their GPS. It comes with preinstalled maps, and users can easily access the navigation features with the click of the phone’s one-touch Navigator key.

With the Nokia 6110 Navigator, consumers can quickly and easily view their current location on the map, search for destinations, find specific routes, or locate services such as restaurants, hotels or shops that are nearby. Featuring full turn-by-turn 3D navigation, the Nokia 6110 Navigator suggests the best route to follow to reach a location by car or on foot. Clear instructions by voice guidance and turn arrows on a map ensure finding the fastest way to the destination.

Nokia 6110 in addition to all of the above has some pretty interesting specs as a cell phone as well, which include:

• Symbian OS (S60 platform)
• HSDPA for fast web browsing and downloading
• WCDMA 2100 HSDPA, GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900
• 2 megapixel camera with integrated flash, 4x digital zoom and panorama mode
• Real-time video sharing and video calling
• 40 MB free internal memory
• Support of microSD memory card up to 2 GB

The 6110 is expected to start shipping in Q2 for an estimated price of €450/$580 (before subsidies or taxes.)